The present technology relates to an electronic circuit, a method of manufacturing the electronic circuit, and a mounting member, and particularly relates to, for example, an electronic circuit able to perform good quality data transmission while suppressing an increase in the size of the circuit, a method of manufacturing the electronic circuit, and a mounting member.
For example, in various electronic apparatuses such as television sets, video cameras, and recorders, a substrate on which an IC (Integrated Circuit) (including an LSI (Large-Scale Integration)) that is an electronic circuit performing various signal processes is placed is contained in the housing thereof.
Furthermore, in order to perform exchange of data (including actual data such as images and sounds, and control data) between ICs placed on the same substrate or ICs placed on different substrates, there is wired wiring between ICs and between substrates.
Incidentally, in recent years, with ICs, signal processing is performed with large-capacity data such as a 3D (dimension) image or a high-resolution image, and the large-capacity data may be exchanged between ICs at high speed.
Furthermore, in order to exchange high-capacity data, the number of wires in the wiring between the ICs and between the substrates increases, and it may be difficult for the wiring to cope with high frequencies.
It has therefore been proposed that the exchange of data between ICs be performed wirelessly.
That is, for example, a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) circuit (IC) exchanging data at high-speed by modulating data into a millimeter waveband signal (millimeter wave) and transmitting the data is described in Kenichi, Kawasaki et. al. “A Millimeter-Wave Intra-Connect Solution”, IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. 45, no. 12, pp. 2655-2666, December 2010 and Eric Juntunen et. al. “A 60-GHz 38-pJ/bit 3.5-Gb/s 90-nm CMOS OOK Digital Radio”, IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 58, no. 2, February 2010.
Incidentally, with the CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) circuit modulating data into an RF (Radio Frequency) signal and transmitting the data described in Kenichi, Kawasaki et. al. “A Millimeter-Wave Intra-Connect Solution”, IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. 45, no. 12, pp. 2655-2666, December 2010, Eric Juntunen et. al. “A 60-GHz 38-pJ/bit 3.5-Gb/s 90-nm CMOS OOK Digital Radio”, IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 58, no. 2, February 2010, and the like, the interface of an RF unit processing the RF signal is a single-ended I/F (Interface) exchanging single-ended signals.
That is, a single-ended I/F is adopted as the RF unit for reasons such as, for example, the RF signal that the RF unit outputs is easily measured (the probe of a measurement device measuring the millimeter waves is compatible with single-ended signals), the circuit configuration of the CMOS circuit is simplified, and power consumption is lowered.
On the other hand, data transmission by a single-ended signal may be poor in quality compared to data transmission by a differential signal.
That is, while in a case where a single-ended signal is transmitted, for example, in a case where a micro strip track is formed on a CMOS circuit on which an RF unit is mounted, an interposer, a print substrate (PCB (Printed Circuit Board)), or the like, an unlimited grounded conductor is ideally used, it is difficult to provide an unlimited grounded conductor, and as a result, the quality of data transmission deteriorates.
Further, with data transmission using a single-ended signal, since there is more unnecessary radiation and resistance to noise from the outside (outside of the transmission path through which a single-ended signal is transmitted) is weak compared to data transmission using a differential signal, the quality of data transmission deteriorates.
Accordingly, there is a method of performing good quality data transmission by converting a single-ended signal into a differential signal and performing data transmission using the differential signal.
The conversion between a single-ended signal and a differential signal is called balanced to unbalanced conversion, and a circuit performing balanced to unbalanced conversion is referred to as a balun.
For example, a balun that converts a single-ended signal (unbalanced input) on a coplanar track into a differential signal (balanced output) and outputs the converted signal from a coplanar strip track is described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-104651.